The Problem Is Choice
by JustBFree
Summary: A Pyro story, post X2
1. Default Chapter

It was cold, he knew that much.  
  
'This is stupid,'  
  
He'd left without a plan of action, he left without weapons, and he'd left without any idea of where he was going.  
  
He was lost. Again.  
  
He'd gotten turned around somehow, the snow had covered his friends' tracks, everything looked the same. Then the pain, the horrible pain!. It coursed through his body, making him lose control.  
  
His body had gotten hot, so hot he wanted to tear off all his clothes and cover himself with snow to cool off, but the snow was melting all around him. The water soaked through his clothes, made tiny streams over the newly exposed rocks and dirt underneath.  
  
He hadn't wanted to die. He had things to live for: he wanted to go places, do things, he wanted to live. Live, breathe, experience.  
  
He was still a child when it came to things like that.  
  
Then, the Cerebro pulse stopped, and John could breathe again. He had a splitting migraine, it throbbed painfully behind his eyes, but he was alive, and he could walk. So he did.  
  
He was still lost, the Cerebro pulse made it even harder to concentrate on where he was supposed to go. He'd been wandering for over an hour, he realized as he checked his watch.  
  
'Where the Hell am I?!' he thought in frustration.  
  
His mutation could help him now, if he burned down the forest and melted the snow so that he could see better. That was the problem; he just couldn't see the path before him.  
  
There was a deep grinding sound coming from somewhere ahead, maybe half a mile. He followed, wobbling a little, his knees ready to give out. John was not a quitter.  
  
He was panting now, his mind was swimming, dizzy.  
  
'Almost there, almost there, don't give up!' he commanded his body.  
  
Then, the forest cleared, and he saw them. Magneto chained a man to a slab of cement. Mystique was watching nearby. Magneto turned his back on the man, he and Mystique boarded the helicopter.  
  
John shrunk into his sweatshirt, hand around the lighter in his pocket. He stood before the trees, intending to watch them as they took off, nothing more.  
  
He'd probably never see either one of them again, or at least not for a very long time. He didn't think they were so bad, not really. Probably no worse than he was, they weren't the bad guys.  
  
If Magneto and Mystique were leaving, then it must be over. The Great Crisis had been averted; the X-men had saved the day.  
  
He watched them, and they looked back at him. Then they looked at each other.  
  
The helicopter door opened.  
  
He saw Mystique and Magneto beckon him from the helicopter with their hands and their eyes.  
  
John climbed aboard. He was too weak to resist. 


	2. Chapter 2

John stood inside the stolen helicopter with two other mutants. It's weird, he thought, we're really the same. The only mutants he had ever met were at Xavier's school, none of them thought the way Magneto thought or looked the way the way Mystique did.  
  
It made John feel cheated somehow, like there was another world out there that he had been left out of. Mutants that were angry like him, mutants that knew the whole world would be better off without humans.  
  
But he was out now, wasn't he?  
  
He was forced out of Xavier's safe world by Stryker's soldiers and met with this frightening reality. He had nearly died several times in the last two days.  
  
'I almost-'  
  
His thoughts were interrupted by what he saw out the window. The dam had burst, the valley was being flooded. Looking far away, he saw the X-men's Blackbird jet take to the air. Well, at least he knew his friends were safe.  
  
The water enveloped the snow covered trees, the rocks, everything.  
  
John stood there on the jet, two fellow mutants piloting the aircraft he had seen them steal. He was still shivering from his hike through the snow, his head and body still aching from the Cerebro pulse.  
  
"John?"  
  
He turned to see Magneto looking at him funny. John's vision blurred a little, and then everything went black.  
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
The awakening was slow, John was dizzy and his eyes hurt. The room was unfamiliar, he couldn't remember much, except that he had gotten onto the helicopter and seen the valley flood.  
  
He got out of the bed, naked from the waist up. What had happened to his shirt?  
  
John's feet dragged on the floor as he made his way to a window. He could here the sirens of fire engines a few blocks away.  
  
"Don't!"  
  
He turned around; Mystique was standing in the doorway. She looked like her usual self: blue, scaly, naked.  
  
John wasn't afraid of her as he knew Rogue was.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Mystique jutted her chin towards the window, "Riots. You'll be safe here."  
  
John went to the window again, peeked out the curtain.  
  
"Whoa," he muttered quietly, "What the hell is going on out there?"  
  
Smoke plumed into the air from several blocks away. He could hear shouting voices, breaking glass, gunshots, sirens and squealing tires-the commotion mere blocks away.  
  
"Riots erupted shortly after what happened at the lake. Not just here, it's worldwide. Stay away from the window, you might get hurt." Mystique said quietly from behind him.  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"My house in Brooklyn, the riots are closer than they look, but we'll be safest here." She moved into the hall as if to leave, but then, as an afterthought, "John, Eric wants to see you downstairs."  
  
John was still peeking out the window, and turned to ask, "Who's Er-"  
  
Mystique had left.  
  
John was rolled his eyes and went into the hall, trying to adjust to his new surroundings. He found the stairs, and went down to the first floor. There was a large den, other rooms and a kitchen.  
  
"Eric?" he asked.  
  
"In here, John." He heard a familiar voice say.  
  
'Magneto's real name is Eric, I ought to remember that.' He thought.  
  
It was a little strange thinking of Magneto as a real person, a man with a past and a common name like Eric.  
  
John found Magneto/Eric in a side room, sitting cross legged on the floor, his eyes closed. John frowned, "What are you doing?"  
  
"Resting a little, listening mostly."  
  
"Listening to what?"  
  
"The movements of the rioters outside. I don't want them anywhere near this house. If any of them are to get too close, they'll live just long enough to regret it."  
  
"Oh, you mean you're protecting us."  
  
"More than anything, young Pyro. Are you alright?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You fainted on the helicopter; out cold for several hours. Are you alright?" Eric asked him again.  
  
"Yeah, I think I'll be ok now."  
  
"Good. It wouldn't do for you to die not one day after we saved you from a plane crash, the Cerebro wave and a flood."  
  
"Yeah, um, do you want me to leave?"  
  
Finally, Eric opened his eyes and looked at John. "Excuse me?"  
  
"Well, it looks like you've got plenty to do around here, so I'll just take off-"  
  
"No you will most certainly not. You're miles from Charles's school, and that's no safer than what it's like at the heart of the riots-John, listen to me: you're in the only safe place for miles. You especially would be a prime target."  
  
"Me especially? What do you mean?"  
  
"Your little show in Boston was all the media could talk about before the Cerebro attack. Your face is quite well known. If I were to let you leave, you would've been better off in the flood."  
  
"Ok, I see your point. What do we do now?"  
  
Eric stood up and walked out of the room. John followed him.  
  
"First item is, put this on," Eric reached into a hall closet and tossed John the dark gray sweatshirt he found there. "Then we wait for word from the others."  
  
"What others?"  
  
"As I said, this is the only safe place for miles around; we've kept it as a safe house for mutants. Others may come to escape the riots."  
  
"Oh."  
  
John didn't know what to say to that, but felt a sense of excitement at the prospect of meeting even more mutants. He wanted to meet others like Magneto and Mystique, mutants who were proud and wanted to use their powers to help others like them...he just wished the circumstances were a little different. 


	3. Chapter 3

John didn't know what to do, he'd never been in a situation like this. Screaming riots mere blocks away from the front door, with only Magneto to protect them. He heard either an ambulance or a fire engine's siren pass the house, and more yelling, a few more gunshots.  
  
John was getting very agitated.  
  
"Relax, John. You're starting to make me nervous." Eric said from the couch.  
  
John didn't think Eric was even capable of becoming nervous. "Sorry, it's just I've never been around this kind of stuff, you know what I mean?"  
  
"Yes, I understand, but you have nothing to worry about, no one is getting in here who would want to harm you."  
  
John frowned and flipped his lighter a few times. "Yeah, that's what the Professor always said too, but you know how that turned out."  
  
To his surprise, Eric chuckled a little. "John, at this point, I think it's safe to say that Charles and I are worlds apart. No human is going to set foot in this house, and even if they somehow managed to get past my defenses, it's not as if they're attacking a group of toddlers, now is it?"  
  
"I guess." John said.  
  
"What are you?"  
  
That question caught him by surprise. "I...I'm a mutant."  
  
"Just remember that anytime someone tries to make you feel inferior. You're a mutant, which is?"  
  
"A god among insects." John repeated Magneto's words back to him from when they first spoke on the Blackbird.  
  
Magneto smiled, "I'm glad to see that your memory wasn't damaged when you fainted. Now don't worry, others will come, the riots will be over in a few more days at the most, then we'll take you back."  
  
Eric last few words made John feel like some item that could just be returned to the store, but ignored his feelings and returned to what he was doing: reading '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'.  
  
He had found the book on the coffee table; Mystique had just finished reading it before the whole mess at Alkali Lake. "Read something, it'll take your mind off what's happening outside," Mystique had told him. He thought that, now that he'd spent more time with them, Magneto and Mystique weren't really so bad. He didn't care what the rest of his classmates thought about them; he knew Rogue was terrified of Mystique and hated Magneto, and that Bobby's feelings were a watered down version of Rogue's, but that was only because they were dating.  
  
John scoffed at their relationship, why in the world had Bobby wanted to go out with a girl he could barely even kiss?  
  
It seemed like a waste of time to him. As for John's own girlfriend...well, they weren't official yet, but they'd been talking for a couple of weeks.  
  
"Oh, here come some of us now." Eric muttered from his seat on the couch across from John's armchair.  
  
Eric had been keeping still and quiet-with the exception of his and John's short conversation a few moments before-as he maintained his concentration on the protection of the house.  
  
John looked up from the book and watched as Eric's eyes seemingly shifted gears from keeping others out, to letting people in.  
  
He heard the back door open and quickly slam shut, then the new arrival was suddenly in the room with them.  
  
"Man, people are going crazy out there!" the young man declared loudly.  
  
"I'm glad to see you made it here safely. Where's your sister?"  
  
"She's right behind me, be here in a second."  
  
Eric nodded and introduced him to John. "John, this is my son Pietro, his sister Wanda-as you just heard- will be with us shortly."  
  
John and Pietro looked each other up and down. They had the same deceptively lean build to their bodies and were about the same height. John's coloring was darker; Pietro was far more fair in his skin, eyes and hair. While John's hair was dark brown, Pietro's head was crowned in snow white locks- John figured it was part of his mutation.  
  
"You didn't leave her by herself out there, did you?"  
  
"No, of course not! I told you already, she's only a few blocks behind me."  
  
"A few blocks?! Pietro, she could-"  
  
"Father, relax. Her powers have grown a lot since you last saw us, trust me three months can change a mutation." "I hope you're right. If anything happens to her-"  
  
"I know, I know, it'll be on me. Don't worry, she could handle a mob like this in her sleep." Pietro then moved farther into the room and sat down on the couch, looking at John.  
  
"So what's your story?"  
  
"Well, I'm a student at Xavier's-"  
  
"Xavier's?! Father, are they-"  
  
"No, Pietro, I suspect that the X-men will be far too busy dealing with their own troubles to come here looking for him. They might not even know he's alive. Mystique and I rescued him, from the Alkali flood."  
  
"Ah, gotcha. How long are you staying?" Pietro asked him.  
  
"Just until the riots die down." John said.  
  
"Yeah? Well, it might be awhile, especially now that Wanda's out there."  
  
"Hey, I never hear you complain when I'm rattling some thug." Came a new, female, voice from the doorway.  
  
John, Pietro and Eric looked over to see Wanda standing casually next to the television. She had come in without being noticed, completely silent.  
  
Wanda didn't look like Pietro or Eric; she had long black hair, dark brown eyes and a subtle tan rather than the creamy coloring of her father and brother. John would have liked to just stare at her for a little longer, but Pietro snapped him out of it.  
  
"Hey, John, you're drooling on the carpet."  
  
John shook it off and greeted Wanda properly.  
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
Finally, like the flame of a candle, the near worldwide riots finally burned themselves out.  
  
John was thankful.  
  
Though he liked staying with Magneto, the twins and Mystique, he knew that he should go before he wore out his welcome. It was time to go back to Xavier's, though he felt a little reluctant.  
  
In the week he had been staying with them, he'd made friends with Pietro and Wanda, and didn't want to just leave them behind. He knew that everyone at Xavier's would consider it sort of like sleeping with the enemy if he were to continue hanging out with them.  
  
Not that he minded the idea of sleeping with Wanda...  
  
"John, are you ready?"  
  
He turned to see Mystique in the doorway of his adopted bedroom. He'd miss this room, and having a naked woman walking all over the place.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be down in a second." He replied. Mystique went downstairs and John followed after her, outside and into a car.  
  
For whatever reason, maybe just to show off, Mystique shape shifted into a chauffer, complete with the uniform and hat. "Right this way sir." She said as she opened the door for him. Eric, Wanda and Pietro were in the back seat waiting.  
  
"Thank you ma'am." He said as he climbed in.  
  
The ride seemed to go fast, almost too fast. Maybe it only seemed that way because John didn't really want to leave his new friends, but at the same time he wanted to make sure his other friends at Xavier's were alright.  
  
"Well, here we are." Magneto said as the car stopped.  
  
"Already?" John asked.  
  
"I'm afraid so. Do give my love to Charles, won't you?"  
  
"Uh, sure." John said as he moved to get out. "Eric? Thank you."  
  
"You're welcome, John. Take care."  
  
"I will." John got out of the car, the twins followed him.  
  
"Hey, John, we'll see you around man, alright?" Pietro asked.  
  
"No doubt." John and Pietro shook hands and patted each other a couple times on the back.  
  
Pietro went back into the car, Wanda stayed behind. "John, here's our number, in case you ever need some help, ok?" she slipped the scrap of paper into his hand and pecked him on the cheek.  
  
"Thanks Wanda."  
  
Then, John was alone outside, nothing between him and the gates of Xavier's school.  
  
"Hey, John," he turned around to see Mystique in the driver's seat of the car. She didn't say anything, only smiled and winked a chrome yellow eye at him. She pushed a button and the car's tinted window went up before he could say anything back to her.  
  
The car went back down the road, out of sight.  
  
John stood outside the gates to Xavier's, and sighed heavily, not so sure anymore if this was the right choice. 


	4. Chapter 4

John punched in the code that opened the front gates, and he walked up the long driveway to the mansion. He felt relieved and breathed in, lilac and juniper scented the air of the walk.  
  
Wait.  
  
There was something else in the air. Something a bit familiar...and none too pleasing to the nose. Charred wood. John walked a little faster towards the school. He heard some sounds ahead, voices. John jogged the rest of the way up the driveway.  
  
"Whoa!"  
  
The mansion was in near ruins. Most of the windows were broken, the front door ripped off the hinges, and from what John could see it looked like several sections of the school had been burnt.  
  
John's brows furrowed together and his chest swelled with anger. He brought out his Zippo lighter, ready to torch whoever had done damage to the school. He heard the voices again, and stalked toward them.  
  
The voices grew louder as he went around a side of the house.  
  
"Hey, who the hell do you think-oh, it's just you."  
  
He found several of Xavier's students and teachers gathered about in what used to be the backyard, but even that was nearly destroyed.  
  
"John!" Peter was nearest to him and ran up to greet him.  
  
"Hey man, long time no see, huh?" John greeted him back.  
  
"John, what happened to you?"  
  
"I got a ride with Magneto and Mystique, crashed with them for a while until the riots calmed down," John gestured to the house, "What happened here? Looks like a twister hit."  
  
"That's not much of a stretch to say, we came back and were greeted with a lynch mob-"Peter began.  
  
Kitty approached them.  
  
"John, did you say you stayed with Magneto and Mystique?" she asked loudly.  
  
Several other students turned their attention from Scott and Ororoe to listen to what John had to say.  
  
"Well, yeah, I mean it was either go with them or drown."  
  
"What were they like?" asked Kitty.  
  
The pair had always been a hot topic of conversation, Rogue had been pestered almost non-stop after the ordeal she went through at the Statue of Liberty.  
  
John shrugged, "They were cool, I wasn't alone with them though. Magneto's kids came to stay-"  
  
"Magneto has kids?!"  
  
"Yeah, twins-"  
  
"How old are they?"  
  
"About our age-"  
  
"Alright, that's enough." Ororoe declared as she put an end to John's interrogation. "This is no time to ask about things like that. We've got a school to repair."  
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
John, despite everything from his recent past that proved otherwise, was a team player. He could take orders and didn't mind hard work. He had pitched in with the rest of the students of Xavier's to rebuild their school.  
  
Xavier's was more than just a school, it was the supposed 'safe haven' from the often brutal real world. It was also the only actual home some of them had ever known. John had had a family, he'd had a real home once.  
  
John's is not the same old, "my-parents-disowned-me-when-they-found-out-I- was-a-mutant" story. John had been on his own even before he realized what he was. Adults, he had found, could be just as careless and irresponsible as any other teenager, and twice as stupid.  
  
His parents had stormed off after one of their famous earth-shattering fights with him, perhaps about a fight he had had at school, though for the life of him he couldn't remember, and left John alone in the house for a few hours. He felt so angry he could barely see straight, and stole his father's lighter and began playing with it in the kitchen.  
  
H e remembered how mad he was, and how the flame seemed to jump out and catch the curtains. He remembers that he only pulled back from the flames out of reflex, not because they actually burned him. He let the house burn, he wanted nothing more to do with his parents, so he let them believe whatever they wanted to believe after they came back to find their house in ashes.  
  
He didn't care, because on that night, he knew what he was. John was a mutant, a being above such petty things as parents that didn't understand him and didn't want him. As a mutant, he was made for greater things.  
  
He just wasn't sure what they were yet, but he was determined to find out. 


End file.
